The Yorkshire Film Archive is a registered charity (no. 1093468) which finds, preserves and provides public access to moving image made in or about the Yorkshire region. YFA also manages the collections held by the North East Film Archive (NEFA), as part of its charitable remit.

In July 2012, the two archives merged and now come under the Yorkshire Film Archive banner and charity. However, we know that we are working across two regions with immensely strong identities; hence both archives retain their regional titles. This is also reflected strongly in the collections we hold, and we continue to celebrate this in all our work.

Together, our growing collections currently contain over 50,000 titles - 17,000 held by YFA, and 33,000 held by NEFA - ranging from films made by the early film pioneers of the late 1890s, to recent footage of changing landscapes and life across both regions.

… or anything in between, you’ll find that the YFA and NEFA collections really do offer something for everyone.

Both YFA and NEFA are based on university campuses, with facilities including temperature and humidity controlled film vaults, for safeguarding the collections, and specialist viewing and editing facilities to help us in our work to make the collections accessible for everyone to see and enjoy. We also have public viewing areas, where you can – by prior appointment – research films from our collections.

We’re always keen to hear from anyone who has film or video made in or about Yorkshire, whether amateur or professional. Your films can be deposited temporarily at YFA so we can inspect them and make good recommendations for the care of your collection. Once we’ve inspected them for content and condition, we’ll get back in touch:

If the films are of interest to YFA, we’ll discuss an Acquisition Agreement which sets out terms and conditions. This allows you to agree the terms under which we care for your films. It doesn’t automatically mean any change of ownership or copyright, but we do ask your permission to use the films as part of our ongoing charitable education and community services, once we’ve undertaken preservation work. We’ll also offer you a DVD copy of up to one hour of your footage, free of charge.

If the films aren’t relevant to our collection, we’ll either return them to you, or, with your permission, offer them to another film archive.

As a registered charity, YFA is governed by a board of trustees. Our board members have various backgrounds, in areas that include media, arts, business, and law; they bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Archive. Read more >